Stone Sea, an installation by Andy Goldsworthy, occupies a subterranean courtyard between the St. Louis Art Museum’s original 1904 building and its recent, David Chipperfield–designed addition. Photo: Scott Smith

Many of British artist Andy Goldsworthy’s creations are ephemeral pieces made from natural materials in rugged landscapes: lines of graduated color assembled from the natural hues of leaves, spheres and pyramids made from ice and snow, delicate stick structures. They are fleeting moments of beauty that celebrate the natural world before being consumed by Mother Nature herself.

But when Goldsworthy works with stone, the results are often robust enough to last for ages. His latest permanent work, Stone Sea, just unveiled as part of the newly expanded St. Louis Art Museum, is no exception. Featuring 25 overlapping ten-foot-tall arches made from stacked limestone blocks, Stone Sea enlivens a small courtyard between the museum’s original 1904 Cass Gilbert–designed home and its new East Building, designed by David Chipperfield.

The installation, which is made of 25 stacked limestone arches, acts as a visual bridge between the two buildings. Photo: Scott Smith

“I was really trying to get underneath the skin of the place, to look beneath the surface of the site to what’s there,” says Goldsworthy. “The courtyard is being used, in effect, as a window into the ground.” Limestone is a type of stone that was formed in the sea, he notes, making its presence in the middle of America particularly fascinating.

“Bedrock isn’t this dead, static material, but is something that’s alive and moving,” he says. “I wanted to reveal some of that fluidity that is in the ground and in the landscape.” Goldsworthy’s original intention was to use limestone excavated from the site, but the material turned out to be too fractured for reuse. Instead, he sourced the stone from a quarry 60 miles away. Stone Sea occupies a long, narrow courtyard, and the tight space, Goldsworthy says, “compresses the sculpture and gives it tremendous energy.”

Meanwhile, Chipperfield’s new East Building is worth a visit on its own. Offering more than 200,000 square feet of additional space—including 21 new galleries, an underground parking garage, and a restaurant—it provides 30 percent more room to show the museum’s collection and special exhibitions. Where Goldsworthy was concerned with materials below the earth, Chipperfield made use of some that exist above—the building’s façade is formed by dark concrete panels that incorporate river aggregate. Inside, a coffered ceiling of lighter concrete is punctuated by skylights, which flood the galleries with sunlight. For the opening, the new galleries will present 230 works of art from the museum’s permanent collection, with a focus on postwar American and German art, including 55 that haven’t been on view in over two decades.

Goldsworthy, atop one of the arches, waits for a stone to be lifted into place. Photo: Louise Cameron, courtesy of St. Louis Art Museum

In many ways, the contributions made by Chipperfield and Goldsworthy are perfectly complementary. Chipperfield’s building showcases the sky; Goldsworthy’s installation provides a little extra grounding. “The arches become, I hope, this connection between the building and the bedrock,” says Goldsworthy. “This particular sculpture is intended to reach down into the nature of the site.”